Some of the country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have begun blocking around 7,000 websites and these websites are all on a secret Government blacklist (Video link below).

Opposition to ISPs taking part in this voluntary scheme to block websites that contain images of child sexual abuses has come from Thomas Beagle of Tech Liberty who is campaigning against the Government supported scheme. He claims it denies people like himself “freedom of expression”. Scott Bartett,, CEO of ISP Orcon refuses to implement the scheme claiming that not enough detail has been provided by the Government on the sites that will be blocked. Presumably he and his colleagues want the details of all websites to be blocked so they can assess them to see if they truly contain objectionable content. In contrast, the Society totally supports the role of Internal Affairs in this filter block but wants the scheme to be made mandatory for all ISPs as soon as possible.